Many art students would kill for Ilene Schuckett’s resume. After graduating from art school, she has been steadily employed by various New York advertising agencies for almost 40 years. Eight years ago, Schuckett took a pharmaceutical ad job, hoping to use her skills in a new capacity. Although everything seemed to be going well, Schuckett noticed a disturbing pattern. “Over the… return to article
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Reader Comments (8)Page 1 of 1 pagesthis is so black and white - you can have a movement for equality while respecting and trying to empower minorities/identities.
Look at health care in Canada - there is still racism but the fact is that all people have health care. This gives more resources to work with for those minorities, it helps them fight for there rights.
Basically economic equality should be the main goal, but we should also work to support other movements as well. As a poor, black, gay man what he wants most, he might tell you health care.
Posted by ryaninfo on Dec 15, 2006 at 11:53 AM Barbara Ehrenreich is a person whose opinions and actions deserve the highest respect. Her book, “Nickel and Dimed,” brought attention to the plight of the working poor. She didn’t just interview them, she joined them in their overworked and underpaid world at some of the least appreciated jobs available in this country.
I’m glad to see she is now tackling the plight of the white collar displaced persons.
The examples in this article are very familiar to me. I have written to every major economic publication, the AFL/CIO, the NRA, local, state and national officeholders 1993 (NAFTA) with little or no sympathy expressed and NO action.
The shedding of the older and the more expensive workers has happened to over fifty individuals I know personally (and I quit counting five years ago). Some were “incentivized” (bribed sounds so crass) to leave. early and allowed to keep benefits to age 65. Others were just fired with excuses of downsizing and right-sizing the company.
The son of a very close friend was the top salesman at a fast food packaging company. He had sales of more than $9 million the year they fired him at age 39.
Many of my friends were teachers here in our city — to cut cost those over 55 who had at least 20 years on the job were given a chance to retire early and get the same retirement package as they would if they stayed until 65. Now our state is now approaching bankruptcy and their pensions are in danger.There are many more I could add, but the story is the same and the results the same.
For the employee loss of benefits, tapping 401(k) early and a lower quality job or muti part time ones.
For the employer (except the top brass) the quality of service is diminished as the knowledge accumulated through experience is trashed. There is no one to point out the best way, the time saved or the techniques developed. Many wheels will be reinvented which won’t show in the accountant’s office, but will affect the bottom line.
For the country: Perhaps the worst is yet to come. With qualified machine operators let go young people see no reason to choose that job category.
As college costs keep rising and foreign workers are imported entry level salaries are lowered, so why bother getting a degree?
There may be some poetic justice coming on the scene, however. The bean counters are largely responsible for millions of job cuts and recently I read that there is a good chance your next income tax will be sent to India — many financial firms have shifted their work that direction.
We don’t even need to hang around to turn off the lights — the computer will handle it.
———————————& —
This morning another writer expressed the issue in economic terms —
“It is a great theory—but it’s not working as advertised.”See: From Globalization to Localization, By Stephen S. Roach | New York
“...there are increasingly disquieting signs.
Most notably, an extraordinary squeeze on labor incomes has occurred in the industrial world—an outcome that challenges the fundamental premises of the “win-win” models of globalization.
In recent years, the benefits of the second win have accrued primarily to the owners of capital at the expense of the providers of labor.http://www.morganstanley.com/views/gef/index.html#anchor4099
Posted by whattheheck on Dec 15, 2006 at 2:56 PM This is another example of the fragmentation of the labor coalition. To combat corporate power, white collar workers cannot abandon unskilled workers to achieve their own ends. The Democratic Party and big unions have largely abandoned unskilled domestic labor in their zest to lay claim to illegal immigrant worker’s dues and future votes.
What is needed is a strong coalition of all labor, similar to the AARP, that has real power in Washington and can represent workers that unions and elitists have abandoned to achieve their own ends.
Posted by eaanders on Dec 16, 2006 at 1:10 AM eaanders, texasindependent,
“What is needed is a strong coalition of all labor, similar to the AARP, that has real power in Washington and can represent workers that unions and elitists have abandoned to achieve their own ends.”
Unions are just another fragment as is the AARP (an insurance company with a magazine).
What we need is to realize that when any of us exploits other Americans to further or own ends, we are destroying 230 years of unity and will go the way of the other societies.
E pluribus unum
Posted by whattheheck on Dec 17, 2006 at 5:11 PM Texass, you are one ignorant SOB. We only have the eight hour day
and the weekend thanks to unions.
WTH, “230 years of unity” !!!???? What are you smoking ? At least
you could pass that crack pipe around…................
Posted by blondemike on Dec 21, 2006 at 1:02 AM WTH, you gotta lay down that crack pipe.
Unions still represent many millions of workers and AARP is a damn
effective lobby.
Posted by blondemike on Dec 21, 2006 at 6:43 PM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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